July 1999.
Smallville, Kansas.
In front of a cornfield.
A blonde boy was lying in the sun, soaking up the light like a plant undergoing photosynthesis.
“Ariel!”
A sudden chorus of cicadas buzzed through the heat.
Ariel reluctantly opened his half-closed eyes.
Standing under the nearby shade of a tree was a stocky kid.
Clark Kent, eight years old.
The Kent family’s other adopted son, Ariel’s brother in name, and an untiring calf under the midday sun.
“Ariel!
Come to Chloe’s house!
Pete’s there too!”
He smiled brightly, showing off a newly grown tooth.
To anyone else, this was just an energetic, ordinary farm boy.
But to Ariel…
This was Superman.
“Not going.”
Ariel closed his eyes.
“Clark, what you should be doing right now is setting up a chair next to me and bathing in the holy sunlight.”
“How many times do I have to tell you?
Vitamin D promotes bone development and is good for your physical and mental health.”
“But you’ve been lying here all morning!”
“If you keep baking out here, you’re going to turn into the shriveled-up cob of corn on this farm—just like the salted fish at old Mr.
Thaddeus’s house.”
Ariel almost burst out laughing.
When you’re blocking meteors in deep space, pulling submarines out of the ocean, or beating the crap out of some lunatic in a leather bat suit in the future, you’re only going to regret not getting more sun this summer.
“Ignore your elders’ advice, and you’ll suffer the consequences,” Ariel said with utmost gravity.
“We’re only eight!”
“Age does not reflect my super-wisdom.”
Clark glared at him.
“Tch…”
“Go play in your mud, Clark.”
Clark huffed with annoyance, turned around, and ran toward two figures standing beneath a large oak tree not far away.
One tall, one short.
Pete Ross and Chloe Sullivan.
The three met up in the distance, their laughter echoing across the wind.
What a peaceful life…
Peaceful my ass!
It’s only peaceful because someone else is carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders for you.
Watching the three receding backs, Ariel felt nothing but heartbreak at how unaspiring this Kryptonian cub was.
[Kryptonian Template · Fidelity: 12%] > [For Truth, For Justice, and For a Better Tomorrow.]
Lifting his hand, the boy dismissed the glowing panel.
“Basking in the sun is obviously for a better tomorrow, too,” he declared, feeling entirely justified in his daily life philosophy.
Farming, driving tractors, guaranteeing twelve hours of sunlight every day, grinding up the fidelity percentage…
and when all hell broke loose in the future, he could just firmly cling to his big brother Superman’s thigh.
Life was as simple as that.
To be able to live such a sweet life was something Ariel wouldn’t have dared to dream up, considering he had started this life as an orphan.
His mother had passed away when he was just a baby, and his abusive, alcoholic father had drunk himself straight into the hospital when this body was only four or five years old.
That left the town residents gathering in the church late at night to figure out how to deal with an unwanted burden like him…
Fortunately, Jonathan and Martha had stepped forward.
The simple, honest farm couple didn’t mind raising another child.
So, the moment Martha took his hand, walked him into the Kent Farm, and he caught sight of Clark…
Memories of his past life along with the truth of this world had flooded his brain simultaneously.
In an instant, he realized what universe he was standing in and recognized that his adoptive parents were the famous parents of Superman.
Ariel had enjoyed a very happy time since then.
He integrated into the family, shared a bunk bed with Clark, and was fed Martha’s apple pie every day.
Although the alcoholic father was eventually discharged from the hospital, he unfortunately never made it back to the farm.
Halfway there, he suffered a sudden heart attack and died in the muddy road during a pouring rainstorm.
Then, just last week, Ariel woke up to find a small line of text floating in his field of vision.
A Roleplaying System.
That was the name Ariel gave it.
It started with only one slot.
The way to gain power was to touch a super-powered individual, bind their template, and fulfill the cringe-inducing requirements in the tiny text to push the progress bar to 80%, unlocking the next slot.
If the progress bar dropped to zero, he would become an idiot.
It was that simple.
So, without a second thought, he had placed his hand squarely on Clark’s shoulder.
No kidding.
In a place like Smallville, where there was nothing but corn and cow manure, who else was he supposed to bind besides this future God among men?
Yawning, Ariel stretched his arms.
Clunk—!
A roaring engine sounded.
A dust-covered Ford pulled up to the side of the dirt road.
Ariel raised an eyebrow.
The car door swung open, and a tall man stepped out.
He had a messy, unkempt beard and reeked of tobacco.
He looked thoroughly irritated.
“Hey, lucky lazy kid.
Know how to get to the Kent house?”
Among all the honest distant relatives of the Kent family, it was impossible for them to produce a thug who looked like a hardened criminal at first glance…
With a voice that raspy, he looked like he’d been smoking weed for twenty years.
Reaching out, Ariel pointed toward the highway to the west, the exact opposite direction of the farm.
The man grunted, spat on the ground, opened the door, and restarted the car.
Ariel laid back down on his chair, perfectly relaxed once more.
It wasn’t until the sound of the beat-up Ford spewing clouds of black smoke as it sped off in the wrong direction faded from his ears…
that the smile on his face slowly disappeared.
This guy was extremely suspicious.
Could he really be a wanted criminal from Gotham?
Pushing himself up by the armrests, Ariel prepared to take a shortcut back to tell Jonathan to dig out the old hunting shotgun and load it with shells.
But just as he turned halfway around, the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the leaves overhead was suddenly completely blocked by a massive figure.
Something clamped down tightly on his arm.
The car had clearly driven off, yet the man was somehow standing right behind him in the shadow of the tree.
“I may have been asleep for a damn long time, but I still remember the way home, kid,” the man growled in a low voice.
“Why did you lie to me?”
His muscles tensing quietly, Ariel tried to yank his arm back.
It didn’t budge.
This makes no damn sense.
Even if he had only been photosynthesizing in this beat-up yard for a week, with his template fidelity, his current arm strength was enough to throw a hundred-pound haystack over the top of the barn with one hand.
Yet this tobacco-smelling rough guy didn’t even seem to be exerting himself.
A metahuman?
Ariel’s eyebrows twitched.
And what did he just say?
What did he mean by “the way home”?
“Are you…
a Kent?” Ariel asked.
Grinning, the man swept his hair back, ready to give this arrogant brat a reminder of the legend of the Smallville Lone Wolf.
“What do you think you’re doing to my brother!”
A violent gust of wind swept across the field, flattening the stalks of wheat.
Huh?
The man sneered.
He saw another little kid charging toward him aggressively.
Like an ant trying to stop a car.
He casually thrust out his left hand, intending to slam this farm boy into the dirt and teach him a lesson about the law of the jungle in the adult world.
Acting so impulsive at such a young age meant the real world wouldn’t go easy on him when he grew up.
With an attitude like that, if he ever went to Gotham…
“Kid, when you go crying back to your mommy’s arms for milk later, remember your uncle’s name!
I am—”
BANG—!
The world went silent.
A fist struck the man squarely on the side of his face.
Just a second ago, the man had considered himself a apex predator.
The next second, he was flying backward along the ground.
With a loud CRACK, he smashed straight through an old oak tree and landed in the mud, completely motionless.
Leaves swirled down, landing on the face of the passed-out man.
Ariel’s eye twitched.
Looks like I really didn’t spoil this great Superman brother of mine for nothing.
He looked up at the yellow sun radiating endless light and heat in the sky, then at Clark, who was standing in place in his punching stance, panting heavily in the sunlight.
To make a Kryptonian cub pant under the sun with just one punch…
did Clark secretly burst with power just now to save him?
“Ariel, are you okay?”
Clark pulled back his fist, his light blue eyes filled with concern.
“I’m fine.” Ariel rubbed his throbbing temples and pointed at the middle-aged man whose status was unknown behind them.
“The problem now is whether he’s okay.”
“This guy seems to be our relative.”
“Huh?”
“Did you forget?”
“Forget what?”
“What did Dad say at the dinner table last night?”
Clark blinked innocently, looking completely lost.
“Of course you forgot, because you were too busy wrestling with the tacos on your plate.” Ariel stared at him expressionlessly.
“Dad said we have a long-lost uncle.
He got in touch with him a few days ago, and he was supposed to come back around now.”
Clark’s eyes widened.
He looked at the unconscious man under the broken tree.
“Could it be…
that he’s…?”
“Nine times out of ten.” Ariel walked over with a serious expression.
Despite being sent flying by a punch and breaking a tree, the man’s skin wasn’t even broken, and his chest was still rising and falling steadily.
Such terrifying physical durability, such terrifying arm strength…
Clearly, their long-lost uncle…
was a metahuman!
After all, taking a full-power punch from a current-stage Man of Steel head-on and only passing out made him a absolute monster-level existence in a starter village like Smallville.
Ariel scratched his hair in frustration.
“Clark, why couldn’t you wait until I asked clearly before jumping in next time?”
“Because you always tell me that when family is in danger, don’t hesitate—just use my super strength!” Clark scratched his head, looking completely innocent.
“My exact words were: Use your brain to think first, and only use strength if that fails!”
“Right.” The boy blinked his harmless blue eyes.
“So now my brain tells me that I had to use strength just now.”
It makes so much sense, I literally can’t argue with it.
Ariel took a deep breath and placed both hands solemnly on Clark’s shoulders.
“What is the First Rule of the Kent Protocol?”
“Protect family,” Clark replied instinctively.
“And the Second Rule?”
“When in doubt, ask…
ask Ariel?”
Ariel: “So did you just skip the Second Rule?”
Clark looked innocent.
“Because my brain told me the First Rule has a higher priority than the Second Rule.”
“Fine.
Then starting today, the Third Rule of the Kent Protocol: before your super-wisdom tells you to use super strength, add one prerequisite!” He lowered his voice.
“Before knocking someone out, think about how to destroy the evide—”
“Ahem…
handle the aftermath.
I meant handle the aftermath.”
“Yeah, Dad said Kents have to be honest and upright,” Clark nodded earnestly.
“Exactly, handle the aftermath in an honest and upright way.
You get me…”
Before he could finish his sentence—
“What are you doing to my dad!”
A shrill, childish scream rang out.
Ariel whipped his head around.
He saw a golden blur fly straight out of the cornfield!
It was literally flying!
The petite figure completely defied gravity, crashing headfirst into Clark’s chest!
BOOM!
This time, it was the Man of Steel’s turn to go flying.
Clark didn’t even have time to grunt.
He tumbled through the cornfield, flattening huge swathes of cornstalks and plowing a dirt trench over ten meters long.
Ariel froze on the spot.
There’s ANOTHER powerhouse?!
Staring at the trench, his brain went completely blank.
That’s Clark Kent!
Even if he’s only eight years old, even if he hasn’t learned to fly yet, his bone density is harder than steel plate!
Who the hell could send the Man of Steel flying into a cornfield with a headbutt?!
As the dust settled, a young girl scrambled up from the ground.
Ignoring the dirt on her clothes, she spread her arms wide to protect the unconscious man behind her.
She looked to be around seven or eight years old, wearing an oversized T-shirt, her blonde hair as messy as wild grass.
She glared right at Ariel.
Her sky-blue eyes were filled with chilling murder attempt.
Deep within her pupils, something was even heating up, glowing with flickering red light.
Trying to kill someone at such a young age?
What kind of environment did this kid grow up in…
Wait…
Blonde hair, super strength, shoots lasers from her eyes?
Could this be…
Kara?
Supergirl Kara Zor-El?
Ariel’s brain worked at lightning speed.
That’s fine.
That makes sense.
Jonathan’s family got an uncle, the uncle picked up Supergirl Kara—who also crashed in a spaceship—outside and brought her back to the farm.
The plot of this parallel universe is a bit heavily modified, but it still makes sense.
Just as he was comforting himself, a golden light flashed in front of his eyes.
In an instant, a small hand clamped tightly around his neck.
Crack, crack—!
Ariel’s eyes rolled back as his neck bones creaked.
He almost lost his breath entirely.
And then…
something unbelievable happened!
[DING—!
DING—!
DING—!]
> [Special template user detected.]
> [Target Identified: Perfect V-Series Metahuman — Homelander.]
> [Template Recorded — Homelander]
> [Roleplaying Requirement: Getsuga Tenshou!
Do Whatever You Want!]
> [Binding…
Binding Failed!]
> [Slot 2 (Pending Activation), Homelander Template (Pending Activation)]
> [Please continue increasing the Kryptonian Template Fidelity to activate Slot 2.]
> [Please interact deeply with the template holder to activate the Homelander Template.]
> [Hidden Hint: Similar templates can deeply fuse with the current Slot 1 template to generate an Advanced Template —]
> [KING HYPERION]
The wind stopped.
The heat brought by the sun lingered endlessly, suffocating the space between the two of them.
Ariel Kent’s long-overdue summer seemed to have finally arrived.
With his neck throttled, his eyes passed over the girl’s delicate face and stared blankly at the sky.
Wait…
What kind of fucked-up parallel universe is this?!